The small hand of the tiniest Rising Star student, Reshma, reached up for my hand. In her broken English she formulated the sentence, “Many Happy Returns of the Day!” In Tamil Nadu the traditional way of wishing someone a happy birthday is by shaking their hand with a big smile and rather than wishing them a Happy Birthday you wish them, Many happy returns of the day! It is also common for the Birthday girl or boy to buy sweets and share the sweets with all of their friends and family rather than wait on being doted over with hundreds of gifts and presents. Nearly two weeks ago I celebrated my 23rd Birthday here in India and it was a Birthday that I will never forget. My actual Birthday was spent traveling to the neighboring state of Andra Pardesh with the 20 or so Rising Star volunteers, and the Rising Star medical team to visit two leprosy colonies that had never received medical care from the Rising Star team. Because I knew that I would be traveling on my Birthday I decided to celebrate with the kids the night before. I ordered a large cake to share with all of the students. Rising Star’s cook, Padmini and her family helped me slice it into hundreds of small pieces. With the help of a couple of volunteers I was able to distribute it to all of the students. Traditionally when a Birthday girl or boy distributes cake all of the students line up and sing happy birthday to him/her on the front steps of the hostel. However, the night of the 19th there was a 40 minute monsoon downpour and so all of the kids were safe in their houses and were not about to leave their homes. Rather than distribute the cake all at one time I instead filled platters with the slices of cake and took them around to each house.
At each house I was bombarded by tiny hands reaching and saying please and thank you, I was greeted by the song Happy birthday and left with several homemade cards the children had made for me. By the time I had reached the 3rd house one of the older boys came up and smeared cake frosting all over my face. The kids all got a kick out of this and each house that I visited after that I had several students come up to me and smear some of the frosting off of their cake onto my face. By the time I arrived at the last house my face was covered in frosting. Despite the frosting covered face I ended in Saraswathi’s room and pulled out my speakers by request of Logeshwari, one of the older girls, and performed for many of the girls.
Despite my frosting covered face I set my speakers down and I started dancing for everyone. It was a very special moment, after performing for them I then put on some traditional Tamil music and the evening ended up turning into one big dance party. For nearly 45 min. I sat dancing with Indian women and children. While the rain began to start up again we danced to a traditional marriage song, we did the garagarm pot dance and continued moving to the sounds and beats of the Indian music late into the night. As we stomped our feet and I twirled small Vanamalar in my arms I was overcome with Joy! Dancing late into the night with the Indian people was definitely one of the best Birthday parties I have ever had!
The following morning was an early one. In order to arrive in Andra Pradesh and help those in the colonies we left the hostel by 5 a.m. by 7:30 a.m. we reached the neighboring boarder of Andra Pradesh and an hour and a half later we were still sitting there. The day we tried to enter the state there was a strike going on and so we sat at the boarder waiting for the Indian officials to check our van’s registration. After a lot of back and forth between a crowd of Indian men and Dr.Kumar we were able to pass the boarder. Apparently there is a rule in India that if you own a private vehicle and you are going to cross state boundaries you cannot have more than 12 passengers. Unfortunately our van had 13 volunteers so we had to rent a van at the boarder and leave our van in a parking lot in the middle of India with faith that it would still be sitting there when returned in 2 days. It seemed like a made up rule to me…but then again this is india and nothing seems to surprise me anymore. Once we switched cars we were on our way but with the delay our hotel reservations had been canceled so we had to find another place to stay. After 8 hours of travel we finally arrived at the hotel and we were able to have lunch. Indian noodles had never tasted so good. I inhaled my lunch and got back on the van ready to travel to the first colony. It took us another hour to drive to the first colony located at the base of the richest temple in India, talk about the irony. The vegetation was much denser than anywhere in Chennai and in order to get to this colony we had to drive up and down a long and windy road. When we finally arrived the 80 patients were all waiting for us, and had been for several hours. Because they had been waiting for so long we did not bother wasting any time and jumped right in with testing for hypertension, and diabetes, taking pictures of their conditions for medical purposes, and washing and re-bandaging their wounds. We ended up staying until it was dark.
During my time I took a break and sat down next to a kind woman who was helping her mother and farther-in law receive medical care. As I sat done next to this woman she began to speak to me in some broken English. After a few minutes of pained conversation, due to the language barrier, she found out that it was my Birthday. When she found out that it was my birthday she became so excited that she said, “Birthday Sari, come.” And so I followed. I followed her through the Indian jungle, muddy roads and all to a small grass roofed home. She invited me into her two-room hut where her and her family of 7 resided. It was humbling to say the least, there were small chickens running around and they used a cot as a coach in their all-purpose room. However, despite her and her families humble circumstances they had a TV. In fact as soon as I lowered my head to fit through their small door the first thing they did was switch on their television set.
She began wrapping me in a beautiful sari but had to stop because the top was too small for me. This woman was so tiny that there was no way her sari blouse would fit me. Since I didn’t fit she reached into her cupboard, full of saris, and pulled out an even prettier and more ornate piece of fabric. She began wrapping the yards and yards of silk around my body and kept saying, “my sari go to America,” and I kept saying, “to wear is a wonderful gift, not to keep.” She was so persistent that finally my friend Hannah who had come along said, the photo is the gift, the photo is a wonderful gift. So with the new enthusiasm that she would get her picture taken she finished wrapping me up and I went out front where her husband greeted me with a cold Thumbs Up (the Indian equivalent to coke.) I don’t think that I could have received a better gift. I was amazed at how this woman was willing to give me something of such great monetary value when she came from such humble means.
After trying on Sandoshim’s sari and sipping my birthday soda I headed back to the community center where the volunteers were all set up. As I walked back 20 or so Indian children came up to me and began singing me Happy Birthday. I just lost it, tears started streaming down my face and all I could think of was the hymn: Because I have been given much. After singing to me the kids all ran up and hugged my legs as tight as they could. Tears were streaming down my face, here I was in a leprosy colony and with hundreds of people who had never seen me before, who physical struggled with a disease and it’s stigmas and they were the ones singing to me. It was a humbling experience and did not stop there.
After the kids sang me happy birthday I was offered the opportunity to present one of the men in desperate need for crutches with a new pair. What a powerful moment it was for me to give this man new crutches. After coming from a situation where I had to use crutches for 3 months I was amazed at his joy. After my 3 months I was more than ready to get rid of those sticks because they hindered my ability to accomplish simple every day tasks. However, this man was so excited to receive the crutches because they were going to make his life much easier. While I was so excited to get rid of mine he was just as excited to receive crutches that actually worked. The cyclicality of life never ceases to amaze me and giving these crutches to this man on my birthday was a reminder that life continues to move forward in one eternal round.
My 23rd Birthday was incredible, I could not have asked for a better birthday. Along with the experiences above I also had the opportunity to ride in an Indian party bus, stop for ice cream with a bunch of friends and help my brothers and sisters here in India. Being 22 was awesome and with a start like this one I know that 23 will be too!
Pictures taken by: Jennie Dozie
Thousands of Tiny Miracles 